about learning, there is real evidence they're learning throughout the year, not just on that single day. >> one of the things to think about here is this is far on the -- this is an extreme example of a whole spectrum of things of people dealing with high-stakes testing. this is the most extreme kind of thing, but teaching through the test are other ways or maybe just being better teachers which is the argument of the people who favor this. pedro, darryl, goldie taylor, atlanta resident here in new york. thank you for joining us. that was awesome. that is "all in" for this evening. i'm chris hayes. the rachel maddow show starts now. good evening. >> you did it. you launched. >> happy birthday. >> thank you. this was a very, very nice birthday present for you to give me, doing such an awesome show. so great that you're here, chris. i could not be more excited. >> i just want to make you happy, rachel. >> well done. thanks to you at home for joining us where it has been a very big day already. because of the launch of all in with chris hayes at 8:00 eastern, we have been thinking of today as opening day for

msnbc, but today was also opening day for real in major league baseball. an unseasonably cold opening day in a lot of the country. major league teams all wore patches for opening day that honored the victims of the sandy hook elementary school massacre in newtown, connecticut. and arapahoe county prosecutors in colorado said they would seek the death penalty for the aroura, colorado, movie theater attack. we have news this hour aabout how one state has decided to respond to the country refusing to let the killings fade away. the evolving politics of gun reform, and one state making a big leap forward on that issue tonight. we'll be blaking that news here tonight. that's coming up. >> in arkansas today, as chris covered in detail in the last hour, the clean-up continues on the big exxon oil pipeline leak. this residential neighborhood in mayflower arkansas, continues to bear the brunt of the fact we don't know how to clean up the

kind of tar sands oil that was in that burst pipeline, and thad would be in the keystone pipeline that would track all the way across the nation. >> san francisco former love govern has his primary run off tomorrow to try to run for his old seat in congress again. and it's reported the nominee to be the next u.s. ambassador to japan is going to be caroline kennedy. the daughter of former president kennedy. the easter ail roll at the white house, which shows a retreat or advance in the war on easter, but finally, the story i have been obsessed with for weeks did finally come to an end today when the 240-foot u.s. navy mine sweeper that had been stuck on a world heritage site coral reef for months, that finally got lifted off the darn reef for good. they had to cut the ship into pieces to get it unstuck, but as of today, that ship is in fact unstuck. they will pain a fine,

apparently, for whatever damage we did to the reef, but so far, they'll still measuring the reef to tally up the damage. there's a lot going on in the news, political news and news news, but we're going to begin tonight with the murder of another public official, which is not the kind of thing we end up reporting on very much on this show because it's frankly not something that happens very much in our country. historically, we have had our share of assassinations, including high-profile ones, but generally speaking, to be a public servant in the united states, that takes the kind of bravery that we usually associate with having the courage of your convictions. we don't usually expect that being an elected public servant in america is something that requires actual physical bravery. yet in texas, in texas now, for the third time in two months, law enforcement is coping with the aftermath of another public official being shot to death. now, nobody knows if any of these three cases are connected.

it may be that all three of them are connected. it may be that two are connected or none are connected at all, but this has been in quick succession in a relatively small geographic area in the country. this is the map of texas. the part we're talking about is the greater dallas area. now, the first incident happened in kaufman, texas. the second incident was related to a shooting that happened in colorado, but the suspect died on the left side of the screen there, in decatur, texas. now the third one which happened this weekend, saturday, it happened back in kaufman county. in a town called forney, texas. so these are the three. of these three, it is the shootout in decatur we have covered quite a bit on the show. that was two weeks ago when the prison's chief in the state of colorado was shot and killed when he answered the front door of his home in monument, colorado. the same gun used to kill him, tom clements, was later used two days later in decatur, texas, in a shootout with police and sheriff's deputies that ended

with the suspect dead. the suspect was a colorado ex-con, known to be associated with a prison white supremacist gang. there's still no motive for the tom clements killing, but they say bomb making materials were found in the suspect's car. after he allegedly shot the prison's chief in colorado, where was he heading with the bomb making materials when he was driving through texas? in any case, that shootout was march 21st. the prison's chief was killed the 19th. the shootout that killed the suspect was the 21st in decatur, texas. six weeks earlier in kaufman, texas, about 100 miles away from decatur, another utterly mysterious killing of a public official. in this case, an assistant district attorney, so a prosecutor for kaufman county. kaufman county is a small county, only about 100,000 people outside of dallas.

what made the killing stand out at the time it happened is how for a lack of a better word, i guess, is how professional the killer or killers seemed in this shooting. the assistant d.a., mark hasse, parked his car in a parking lot about a block away from the county courthouse where he was working. a sudan reportedly pulled up alongside him, either one or two people got out of the sudan and shot him multiple time said. the suspects were described as being dressed in all black, having their faces covered, and wearing, quote, tactical style vests. the suspect or suspects then got back into the vehicle and took off. no one has been arrested in the case, no leads have been announced, no suspects have been announced. in terms of the news worthiness of this killing and whether or not it could have been random or whether it was connected to mark hasse's job as an assistant d.a., we were left to puzzle over one detail, which is no shell casings were ever recovered from the scene.

so it's a bizarre case, but again, no suspects, no leads, no identified motive. at a press conference the day assistant d.a. mark hasse was killed, his boss, the prosecutor in that county, the elected district attorney in that county, did not mince his words. >> any assistance that anyone can give us in finding the people who did this will be greatly appreciated. anything that you people can do to accelerate our getting our hands on this scum will be appreciated. i hope that the people that did this are watching because we're very confident that we're going to find you. we're going to pull you out of whatever hole you're in and we're going to bring you back and let the people of kaufman county prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.

this is a crime as our county judge said that's against the very basis of our fabric. as far as i know, this has never been done before. i do not want it to happen again. >> i do not want it to happen again. anything you people can do to accelerate our getting our hands on this scum will be appreciated. that's mike mclellan. head prosecutor, district attorney in kaufman county, speaking on the day his deputy mark hasse was murdered in broad daylight on the street in kaufman county. as the d.a., he's looking at it in two ways, a crime, the murder of a public official that happened in his county. he's the chief prosecutor, he has to prosecute it, and if the deputy d.a. was killed because of his job, because he was the deputy d.a., then the d.a. himself also has reason to worry he might also be a target, right? mike mclellan addressed that

concern with reporters after the hasse killing, telling the associated press he was carrying a gun at all times following mark hasse's murder. he told the dallas morning news he was shifting the details of his personal routine. the dallas morning news interviewed his wife as well, cynthia mclellan. she told the paper, it's very sad. i feel like my husband could be in danger, too. well, on saturday night, both cynthia mclellan and her husband mike mclellan were found dead inside their home in forney, texas, which is in kaufman county. cynthia's body was found near the front door. it appears as if she opened the front door. quote, two officials say mike's body was found in the rear of the house dressed in pajamas. they describe a source leaving the scene, they found the baby and shell casings. you don't do the stuff that's been done if it's not revenge motivated.

again, that's from an anonymous police source, ascribing a motive based on what he or she saw at the scene. the abc affiliate locally wfaa is reporting according to their sources, a .233-caliber rifle was used and approximately 14 rounds were fired. to have the assistant district attorney and district attorney of the same small texas county shot to death within eight weeks of each other seems like a coincidence if it turns out to be a coincidence. but in terms of connecting the killings, the detail about the shell casings is different. either there were no shell casings at the first killing, but reportedly, they were all over the scene at the second killing. differences in details like that has led the speculation that maybe the killers in the first case were more experienced or maybe we're dealing with two different sets of killers for the assistant d.a. and the d.a. we're also told the fbi is looking into a link between the

colorado prison chief's killing and the first killing. they had already been looking into that link before the district attorney was killed. they have produced nor evidence to think they are linked, at least that they have made public. one loose thread that everybody does seem willing to pull, though, is related to white supremacist prison gangs. on the day that the assistant d.a. was killed, the justice department has just cited the kaufman county's d.a. office announcing guilty pleas from two gang leaders from the aryan brotherhood of texas. earlier in november, kaufman county prosecutors were cited by the justice department in a huge round up of the same gang, aryan brotherhood of texas. indictments that were the product of many different agency s and state and federal prosecutors. it was a big blow to that gang, and of course, the apparent killer of tom clements, the prison chief in colorado. the alleged killer in that case who led out with a car full of bomb making materials who died

in texas was also associated with a white supremacist prison gang in colorado. it may be there is no connection between these killings, in which case it would be a huge coincidence that we have such high profile murders of prison officials in such a short time in such a small geographic area. if they are connected, as they are investigating, if there is a connection here, what that means is that public officials who prosecute and lock up criminals in this country are being assassinated. and that is a very terrifying prospect. joining us is darren rozelle, to area closest to where mclellan and his wife were killed. it's very nice to have you here. thank you for talking with us tonight. i'm sure this is a difficult time. >> thank you, rachel. it has been. i appreciate a lot of your comments in your opening statements there.

one being that mike mclellan was one of the top elected law enforcement officials in our country. i understand this is a nationwide story, but it is home to us. and it's really impacted us and hurt our community there in forney and the county. and the mclellan family is hurting beyond anything i can even understand. >> absolutely. well, as we're trying to figure out whether these might just be unrelated events that seem to happen close together and close in time or whether they are connected, is there a sense of -- in the county, in kaufman county at home as everybody is dealing now with these two murders of senior law enforcement officials, is there a sense of fear? is there an assumption locally that they are connected and people ought to be worried? >> to an extent there has to be somewhat a concern that they are connected. what i personally am trying to do for the forney community and as much of the county that will kind of go along and agree with the same sentiment is one to really focus on the mclellan

family. i understand that folks are shocked and saddened for the family, and they're also a little scared. but what we're trying to do is get the point across and you have covered it, that these appear even if they're not connected, they appear to be targeted attacks. this was not some random home in forney that was picked. that being the case, then folks should not walk around in fear. our county judge said that this morning in one of his press conferences. he didn't want to see the county residents walking around in fear but wanted them to understand we need to pray for the mclellan family and those handling the investigation so we can catch the people as soon as possible, but we need to continue to be the close-knit community we are, be aware of our surroundings and look out for our neighbors. >> i know there are rewards in both of the cases for information that leads to a prosecution here. kaufman county crimestoppers has been asking for public donations towards rewards. what kind of response are you having to that call for donations and is law enforcement counting on public tips at this point?

>> there have been some, and the website is kaufmancountycrimestoppers.org. it's overseen by both the sheriff's department and the d.a. department. and they can make a contribution to there, and what that does is it not only allows us to have funds to, quote, reward people for information, but it's also a place where they can call and submit tips if they happen to know something. and what we're hoping is that by raising enough funds, we can generate some information coming in because it's going to have to be a large enough amount. if some of the connections that some folks are speculating on are true, it's not going to be a typical $10,000 or $20,000 award amount. it's going to take a large amount of money. what i'm hoping is by getting the information out about kaufmancountycrimestoppers.org, we can make a nationwide statement and stop it here. >> we do not know if either of

these killings was connected to the work done in the district attorney's office. specifically a lot of people have been talking about the role of kaufman county prosecutors in going after the aryan brotherhood of texas prison gang, and again, i do want to stress we don't know if they're connected, but law enforcement, that's one of the lines they're pulling here. do you have reason to believe in kaufman county or in the surrounding area in texas, that gang or associations with that gang might be operating as a sort of network in your part of the state? that might be something where they would have help on the outside? >> well, i would have to say 72 hours ago, probably not so much, but now i'm beginning to wonder. i'm asking a lot of the same questions a lot of other people are. one of the things i'm convinced of is our county sheriff, david burns, he has his department working, covering every angle they can. the fbi has been great to assist them. they're following leads they have maybe outside the state.

i believe we're going to know a whole lot more about this than we do in the coming days. >> i know this is a very difficult time. thank you very much for helping us understand it tonight. good luck to you, sir. thank you. >> thank you. >> all right, big news tonight out of connecticut. unexpected and unprecedented news. just breaking tonight, and we have the connecticut senate president here with us next to explain what just happened there. stay with us. that's next. [ woman ] we're taking downy to the streets. which shirt feels more expensive? that one's softer. it's the same t-shirt. really? but this one was washed in downy. why spend a lot of money when you can just use downy? [ woman ] downy's putting our money where our soft is. try downy softness. love it or your money back. [ woman ] downy's putting our money where our soft is. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods.

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newtown, connecticut, sits between new york and boston. it's not equidistant, but it's fairly close. today, new york's yankees and boston's red sox played each other in their 2013 major league season opener. red sox won. before the first pitch, this ribbon commemorating the massacre at sandy hook elementary school was painted on the field at yankee stadium in front of both dugouts. the yankees wore a similar ribbon patch on their jerseys right above the new york symbol. the red sox wore one as well over the n in boston. all the teams actually wore a patch like this today for opening day. the stars that you see on the ribbon there, there are 26 of them. one for each of the people who were killed at sandy hook. before the game started, all the victims' names went up on the scoreboard at yankee stadium. they also had an honor guards of about 120 newtown police officers and firefighters at the game, and before the start of the game at 12:55 p.m., there was a moment of silence.

opening day is always filled with all sorts of emotions for baseball fans, but this was a different kind of emotion and in some ways a different level of emotion today at yankee stadium. we are a country that is refusing to forget what happened at newtown. this is not going away for us as a country. one of the interesting political dynamics since newtown is that connecticut itself, the state of connecticut, has not yet moved to pass new gun reform legislation. new york state did so. they were the first. colorado has done so as well, just a couple weeks ago. both of those states passed improvements to the background check system and a limit on high capacity magazines and others, broadbased packages of gun-related reforms. in connecticut, while the pro gun reform group started running this ad specifically in connecticut, pushing for connecticut legislators to get a move on on the issue. connecticut is a democratic-controlled state. dan malloy released his list of priorities for gun reform back in february, but despite

controlling the governorship and both houses of the legislator, both houses have said firmly they would not be rushed through this process. they said rather their priority was to arrive at consensus legislation with minority republicans in both houses of the legislature even though they did not need to so they could come up with solutions that had bipartisan support. today, opening day, it's happened. they have made their announcement. this is what they're planning on. universal background checks for anybody buying guns in the state, a ban on high capacity magazines and a registry for existing ones. you can also legally put more than ten rounds in any magazine at a licensed shooting range but nowhere else in the state. the republican state senator who represents newtown itself are calling the reforms the most comprehensive package in the country. it will also include registry in law enforcement along the lines

of a sex offender registry, there would be a dangerous offender registry. you would need that to buy ammunition if this goes through. as i said, that republican state senator who represents newtown, who helped negotiate this deal with the democrats is calling this the most comprehensive package in the country on gun reform, but they did it. connecticut, at least, is doing it. the reforms were unveiled today. they're expected to be voted on before the end of the week. donald is the president of the state senate, a democrat. thank you for your time. nice to have you here. >> thank you, rachel. >> i have not seen the text of this. i'm going based on what's been reported as part of your gun reform package. did i fairly summarize what is in the package? >> absolutely. we're also banning armor piercing ammunition, requiring a criminal background check for anyone who purchased ammunition. we strengthened our assault weapon ban.

we believe now that is the toughest in the country. you certainly hit on the other points, but i think what really kind of breaks the mold, if not breaks the gridlock here is the idea that we as democrats actually worked with republicans, and you saw today the republican senate leader and house leader in the state legislature stand with us to support this bill. if we can do it in connecticut, this ought to move across the country and they ought to hear that loud and clear in washington, d.c. >> i don't want to ask for the secret details of your negotiations if it's going to screw anything up, but i am curious as to what changed in this over time as you talked to republicans about it? obviously, you democrats could have really done anything you wanted. you've got majority control in both houses and you've got the governorship with a governor who is eager to sign reforms and he said what he wanted. where did you end up after talking with the republicans through the process, where you might not have been otherwise?

>> you know, initially, people thought we would not even be able to address a ban on high-capacity magazines or a ban on assault weapons. and all the background checks and universal checks, whether it's for ammunition or the purchase of fire arms, but we held meeting after meeting of our task force of democrats and republicans. we held five public hearings in total, getting lots of public input, then the leadership of both the democrats and republicans met week after week, and believe it or not, developed trust around this issue so that it did not become political. we looked at the facts. we knew what we had to do, that the nation was watching connecticut. we wanted to be thorough. and we wanted to be complete in terms of our solution. so i think the rest of the country may think this is amazing on one of the most controversial issues in our politics in america you could have democrats and republicans come together, but we did it in connecticut. it can happen elsewhere.

>> let me ask you about one of the specific proposals on large capacity magazines. these extended magazines. and as far as i understand what you're putting forward, you would allow high-capacity magazines to remain in the hands of gun owners who already own them, sort of grandfather them in, although you would legally require people not to put more than ten bullets in a magazine unless they're at a licensed gun range? is that fair? >> we put them in perspectively, but we require those who have the magazines right now, they declare them on a form, provide photographic evidence, and as of january 14th, any possession that has not been declared at that point becomes illegal. and folks are guilty of a class d felony. so the actual ban on the sale and the purchase will be immediate upon passage of the legislation. >> are each of these individual proposals going to be voted on

one by one or all voted on as a comprehensive package, and up and down on the whole thing? >> good question. one big bill with all of our gun violence prevention measures and in addition to that, measures to strengthen school safety and security and measures for our mental health. >> you're starting a conversation that's going to get very loud very quickly. i wouldn't mind staying in touch with you over how it goes in the next few days. >> very good. >> big news. you know connecticut did not have to do it this way. their strategic decision to do it like this, it will be interesting to see how it works out. they still have to vote, but getting republicans onboard when they did not have to was a move that nobody from outside the state could understand. you could hear from the senate president while he thought it was so important. we shall see. it is, of course, april fools' day, but our friends at the fox news channel have done something hilarious as an april fools' prank.

even though it's fox news and we're nbc, i think they deserve recognition because it was so funny. that's coming up.

okay, a quick note for those of you who may share my news obsession with the 240-foot long navy mine sweeper that got stuck on a coral reef on a world heritage site. coral reef off the coast of the philippines. woo covered that ship when it first got stuck. we covered that ship when they

tried to tow it off the reef, which did not work. we covered the ship when they made the drastic decision to cut the ship into pieces to get it off the reef on which it was stuck. they have now in fact succeeded in cutting it up and removing the last of this giant ship off of the coral reef. but if you want more, if you are as obsessed with this story as i am, just tonight, we have obtained three u.s. navy videos showing how they cut through the ship, how hard it was to cut through the ship, and how they were able to lift it off in pieces without themselves getting stuck on it in the process. it is great video from the navy. we have posted it all tonight for your obsessive perusal at maddowblog.com. i'll be there on the break. i'll see you on the other side of it. [ male announcer ] when ziggy the cat appeared at their door,

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epic lines for voting in florida and ohio last year were a national scandal when it came to the election. but you know what? virginia was right there with them. get in line. the virginia elections found voters standing for three hours, four hours, five hours, seven hours? seven hours in a line to vote in a state that considers itself a

cradle of american democracy. only four states had longer average wait times than virginia in this past election. a survey by "new york times" found it took twice as long to cast a ballot in virginia as in ohio, and ohio was really bad. after the election, the state legislature decided to take action. they decided to do something about how hard it was to vote in virginia in 2012. they decided they would make it even harder to vote going forward. virginia republicans in the house rejected a bill that would allow for more absentee voting, more early voting, so at least the senior citizens wouldn't have to stay there all day. republicans in the virginia senate voted to let that go indefinitely the way virginia voters get to wait in line indefinitely. instead of making it so the older folks don't have to wait too long, instead of setting a standard for how long anyone had to wait, virginia republicans decided instead to pass a bill that bans you from voting unless

you can show new documentation you never had to show in order to vote before and hundreds of thousands of people in virginia don't have. even the old i.d. you got last year from the state, last year when they made voting harder and had to send out special cards to help them vote, even that i.d. from the state will not be good enough anymore under the new law. in washington, d.c. at the federal level, president obama has just established a bipartisan commission to try to fix what has gone so wrong with the basic running of the elections in this country, but in the states where they're actually making policy on these matters, already this year we have seen 55 measures introduced to make voting harder. not easier, harder, in 30 states. it's as if republicans in state legislatures looked at the debacle of 2012, the stay in line election and lawsuits over new requirements for voting and couldn't wait to order a second helping for that.

today, arkansas republicans finished passing laws to make voting harder, a democrat governor vetoed the bill, but they overrided it, so it will be much harder to vote in the great state of arkansas. ige virginia, there was not even that last barrier of a governor. lawmakers passed their voter i.d. bill, and bob mcdonnell signed it, and that was it, let's make it harder. joining us now is a virginia state senator, and an opponent of virginia's new law. senator, thank you so much for being with us tonight. nice to have you here. >> thank you for having me back, rachel. >> now that virginia republicans have passed this law requiring new kinds of i.d. at the polls, what is your plan for your party's response? do you concentrate on trying to get the new law blocked in court? do you try to make sure people have what they need in order to vote? where do you expect to jump in? >> we're going to take two tracks, rachel.

one, we're going to hope that the justice department through its exercise under section 5 of the voting rights act, puts a stop to this. but look, we lost that battle, the battle over the bill in the legislature, so we have to be about the business of making sure every virginian knows what the law is and gets their photo i.d. the good news is it doesn't apply to this election. of course, there's always an election in virginia every year. it won't apply until next year. >> in terms of who is likely to be disenfranchised by this new law, which group of virginians are disproportionately not likely to have the i.d. that will now be likely to be required to vote? >> i think two groups, the poor and elderly. there are some folks who are born in the earlier part of the last century who don't have birth certificates, and to get this photo i.d., you're going to have to prove you're a person, prove you're a citizen. they have gotten, as you said already in this segment, voter i.d. cards before, but that's

not going to be good enough. you're going to have to obtain a photo i.d. and show perhaps that you're going to also have to produce a birth certificate. >> you know, we paid so much attention to florida in terms of the way that floridians have to wait in these big long lines and they're waiting in seven-hour lines just like virginians were in the past election, but there was a national -- state-wide sense of embarrassment in florida when that happened so much so that the former governor of florida, charlie crist, declared himself a democrat and all but declared he was going to start running against the florida governor rick scott in part saying it was humiliating our elections were so poorly run. all floridians left right and center think it's a shame and an obnoxious thing to do to block the vote and i'm going to soar back to the governor's house based on this complaint. is that dynamic at all at work in virginia? were people not fed up by having to wait in line so long in november?

>> i think people were fed up, absolutely they were. they were embarrassed. democrats filed many bills, as you highlighted already, to try to shorten the wait time, to try to eliminate the wait time, but we have a republican-led legislature that's a bunch of sore losers. they could not believe they would lose to barack obama twice in a span of eight years. fail to carry the state in a span of eight years. not once but lost it twice. and so they seek to change the rules. we just did this last year. we just changed the voting requirements last year. even the republican -- i'm sorry, the "richmond times dispatch," which is a conservative newspaper, said that there's no reason for this change. so why have they done this? they simply can't handle losing to barack obama two straight elections. >> do you think that there's an opening here for some sort of reform movement that could be done, that could approach the issues in a nonpartisan way and when you look at what barack

obama has done federally in calling for a best practices based assessment of the conduct of elections state by state. he's not asking for democrats to take over the process and take it back from republicans in states. he's saying let's bring in the leading lawyers from both sides and come up with something that isn't going to tip the fields in either direction. is there any way virginia could do that any time soon? >> i would like to think so, but i think we have to get through the next election cycle and settle some issues. i think it's going to make a world's worth of difference as to who the next governor is. will it be terry mccullough or ken cuccinelli. i think we will have a shot at doing some on a bipartisan basis. >> donald, thanks for being here tonight, sir. nice to see you again. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you. all right, the other side of the i am a politician whose child is

gay phenomenon got caught on tape this weekend to very, very awkward effect. that's coming up, plus my praise of fox news' april fools joke. stay tuned.

today, april 1st. was an unbelievable news day. emphasis on the unbelievable.

first, there was the news from the video sharing colossus youtube, after eight years of posting everything from full length movies to music videos to skateboarders getting racks on banisters and puppies falling asleep in their water dishes, youtube announced today it's shutting down. shutting down specifically so they can determine which is the best youtube video. see it's all been one big contest. now that it's time to pick a winner in the contest, the contenders are speaking out about what inspired them to enter the contest in the first place. >> when ewoo heard about the contest, we spent months trying to come up with the best idea, then charlie bit me finger and i was like, write that down. >> i did dancing. >> my dad put a lot of money into this dental surgery i didn't even need just so we could win this contest. he'll be really, really upset if we lose. >> the winner of youtube will apparently win $500 and a

portable mp3 player. we will find out who the winner is in ten years, in 2023, when the site goes back online to announce final judging that will take them ten years to work through. unbelievable news from the internet today. not as unbelievable as news from google which announced today its newest google innovation, seriously unbelievable. >> my wife and i have a puppy with so much energy that we walk her five times a day. she sniffs around every nook and kran eechlt this is how she gets information about her world. we have google nose beta. users can search for smells. the mobile aroam an decksing program can amass 15 million data bias of smells from around the world. if you have a question what does a new car smell like, who has the answer? >> google knows. >> what does the inside of an egyptian tomb smell like.

>> google knows. >> google knows. >> google knows. >> beta. >> google knows, google knows. that's amazing. those folks at google. is there nothing google can't do? then also today there was the announcement from conservative media cable news bastion known as fox news channel, they said hosting 8:00 p.m. show on fox news channel would be? what? former massachusetts senator scott brown, a man who bragged about meeting with kings and queens, who became twitter immortal. scott brown, known for being a lot of things, never especially known for being that great at the communication part of telecommunication. that was their april 1st announcement. scott brown, news anchor, scott brown, hosting the 8:00 p.m. show at fox news channel. you know what, among all the things of which i am aware,

acutely aware this is april 1st. happens every year on april 1st. every year somebody tries to fool the world with a prank seems impossible to be right first. then it is funny in the way it reveals gulability and makes us believe in things that aren't true. google knows, that's a joke. youtube, one big contest, shutting down for a decade to see who wins, that's a joke. but scott brown is hosting the bill o'reilly show? i fell for that, thought it was real for a second. it is amazing.

pennsylvania senator bob casey was the latest democrat to declare his support for marriage equality. in a statement he says took several days to right, he says if two people of the same sex want to marry, why would the government stand in their way, at a time when many la meant a lack of commitment, why would we

want less commitment and fewer strong marriages. only eight are left that are not on the record supporting marriage equality. only eight left. in the senate, 47 democrats support equal rights, eight do not. it is easier to keep track on the republican side. on the republican side, only one senator supports marriage equality and he is easy to remember, rob portman, that's it. he announced last month he decided to support equal rights after living with the knowledge the past couple years that his own son is gay. he did not explain his evolution with much more than that declaration about his son. but just having a gay son is no self-evident guarantee of evolution on this issue politically. for example, over the weekend, a sad and awkward interview by

another republican member of congress with a gay son. congressman matt salmon telling a political talk show him having a gay son has not changed his mind about being against same-sex marriage. at least hasn't changed his mind yet. >> i don't support the gay marriage. >> but that doesn't mean he disavows his son. >> my son is by far one of the most important people in my life. i love him more than i can say. >> in a candid interview, the republican congressman talked about his relationship with his son, why he still believes marriage should only be between one man and one woman. >> i'm just not there as far as believing in my heart that we should change 2,000 years of social policy in favor of redefinition of the family. i'm not there. it doesn't mean that i don't have respect. doesn't mean that i don't sympathize with some of the issues.

it just means that i haven't evolved to that station. rob portman apparently has. >> senator rob portman already there on the issue of same sex marriage, congressman matt salmon thinks rob portman is more evolved than he, himself is on the issue. congressman salmon is trying to work this out for himself. he and his wife have been leaders in the anti-gay rights movement in arizona. in congress, matt salmon voted to ban gay people from adopting children, above and beyond the typical anti-gay conservative stuff. republicans broadly are still trying to work out what their party stands for with regard to gay rights. this weekend, it was dualing sunday shows at the same time. former chairman of the republican party and junior republican senator from arizona saying both at the same time that it is inevitable a republican presidential candidate will support jamz, that's what jeff flake said, while gillespie said it is impossible the republican party will ever support same-sex marriage. so they're working on it, working it out. the republican party is a mess on the issue.

mess is okay. we may reasonably expect they will settle in on being divided on this a long time. maybe as far as the consensus may go for republicans, it is that everybody should be treated with dignity and respect. maybe party leadership could just enforce that if nothing else, right? this is a test. the republican party is undergoing a test and his name is dave agema. a committee member for the national party. he was first to note that he was posting things on his facebook page about how the homosexual agenda is to get the public to affirm their filthy life-style and homosexuals prey on children and account for half the murders in charge cities. when that prompted calls for resignation, he said he wouldn't resign telling critics online you want to change the landscape of the party in a direction not

accepted 230 years. i am trying to maintain the platform. he said i could send you reams of studies showing negative health effects of this life-style, misspelling reams and effects. i know the republican party hasn't decided where they want to be on this issue, but this guy is kind of a test, right? he is on the republican national committee and the republican party does not particularly want people to think of guys like him when they think of what it means to be republican in 2013. but there's a reason people think that of the republican party. look at this. asked by reporters if he should resign, the michigan party chairman told reporters that's between dave and his family and himself. i have no point of view on that at all. republican national committee includes a member from michigan that says gay people account for half the murders in america's gay people